DAMASCUS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A special Syrian security court
sentenced a teenaged blogger on Monday to five years in jail on
charges of revealing information to a foreign country, despite
U.S. calls to release her, rights defenders said.

The long jail term for high school student Tal al-Molouhi,
under arrest since 2009 and now 19 years old, is another sign of
an intensifying crackdown on opposition in Syria in the wake of
the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, they said.

Molouhi had written articles on the Internet saying she
yearned for a role in shaping the future of Syria, which has
been under the control of the Baath Party for the last 50 years.

She also asked U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to
support the Palestinian cause. A security court charged her
several months ago with "revealing information that should
remain hushed to a foreign country".

Wearing trousers and a cream coloured wool hat, Molouhi was
brought chained and blindfolded under heavy security on Monday
to the court, which convenes at a cordoned section of the Palace
of Justice in the centre of the Syrian capital.

Molouhi was motionless after hearing the sentence and said
nothing. Her mother, who was waiting in the courtyard, burst out
crying after being told the sentence.

Lawyers, the only ones allowed in the closed session, said
the judge -- there are no prosecutors in the special court --
did not give evidence or details as to why Molouhi was charged.

"Trumping up charges that imply treason as a lesson for
others is quite old fashioned," said a rights defender who has
followed the case, asking not to be identified.

"Sadly, the regime has not learnt any lessons from Tunisia
or Egypt," the rights defender said, referring to upheaval that
brought down the Tunisian and Egyptian leaders in recent weeks.

The U.S. State Department said last week that Molouhi should
be released because allegations of U.S. espionage connections
were baseless and Syrian citizens were entitled to universal
rights of free expression.

MOTHER IMPLORES ASSAD

Molouhi's mother, who saw her only twice since she was
arrested, wrote a letter to President Bashar al-Assad last year
imploring him to release her daughter, saying Molouhi had
dabbled in politics without understanding it.

There was no comment from Syrian officials. Officials have
previously said that political prisoners in Syria violated the
constitution, which was amended in the 1970s to make the Baath
Party "leader of the state and society".

Molouhi's arrest stirred a storm in the Arab blogosphere,
with numerous postings lambasting what was called indiscriminate
repression in Syria.

The Internet is a rare outlet for the expression of
independent views in Syria, despite surveillance and bans on
numerous sites. Several Syrian bloggers and writers have been
arrested and sentenced to jail.

Harsher terms were handed out this year as mass protests
helped by the Internet spread in the Arab Middle East.

The security court last month sentenced Abbas Abbas, an
69-year old leftist, to seven years in jail, while a 75-year old
Islamist who called through the Internet for Egypt-like mass
protests was also arrested.

The Syrian state has a long history of jailing political
leaders. Leading opposition figure Riad al-Turk spent 25 years
in prison, including more than 17 years in solitary confinement.

Eighty year-old Haitham al-Maleh, a former judged who
criticised corruption, is serving a three year sentence, having
spent seven years as a political prisoner in the 1980s.